One of our dream was to take picture of toucan in Ecuador. It seemed to be such a chance on excursion to Mindo - small city in subtropical climate that is famous from its hummingbirds, exotic butterflies and other colorful birds. City is located to the west of Quito at the level of equator. This was the destination. But on the way there, we had a chance to see another amazing place - volcanic caldera. But not a regular caldera like many others in the neighborhood of Quito. This one is different. It is inhabited by people. You can see the village from the top of caldera and only in the morning. Later it's regularly blocked with the clouds and fog. This place is located about 400m lower than Quito city and surrounded by hills. Why people live there? Probably because there's fertile soil and it's fertile due to volcanic origin. This place is really worth seeing. It's only one such in the world.
So after taking few pictures of that unique caldera, we headed directly to Mindo. First we arrived to
Sachatamia (sacha means forest in
Quechua language). It was some kind of inn with bird tables for hummingbirds and other birds. But this place was different than the one we were in before. Here were much more species of hummingbirds and it was much harder to take pictures of them. First, because it was tight (and with our lens we needed at least 1.8 m to get object in focus) and second, because it was raining. So after one tea, one coffee and about 200 hundreds bad pictures, we decided to move somewhere else. In the center of Mindo, there's kind of exotic garden. You can see there other species of hummingbirds (but very limited), some butterflies and many kinds of orchids. Conditions for taking pictures were much better here, we could even work sitting on stumps. Birds were close and a lot of them were hanging in the air just before getting to the table. It was easier. Nevertheless beasts were equally fast and even if they were hanging in the air, it was only for fraction of second. In that time we had to shoot the place with the lens and force camera to catch focus on the bird, then press shutter and take few shots. I became convinced that taking hummingbirds pictures is a great challenge and requires a plenty of time. This last thing was what we were missing. Besides we were hungry and there was pretty cool restaurant nearby, so decided to quit shooting and went for some food. We had famous steak served on basalt rock (
spanish: lomo de piedra). It tasted really wonderful and I don't think to forget this taste until my next visit to Ecuador. Unfortunately this was our last full day in this beautiful country and I must say I've fallen in love one more time...
So after taking few pictures of that unique caldera, we headed directly to Mindo. First we arrived to Sachatamia (sacha means forest in Quechua language). It was some kind of inn with bird tables for hummingbirds and other birds. But this place was different than the one we were in before. Here were much more species of hummingbirds and it was much harder to take pictures of them. First, because it was tight (and with our lens we needed at least 1.8 m to get object in focus) and second, because it was raining. So after one tea, one coffee and about 200 hundreds bad pictures, we decided to move somewhere else. In the center of Mindo, there's kind of exotic garden. You can see there other species of hummingbirds (but very limited), some butterflies and many kinds of orchids. Conditions for taking pictures were much better here, we could even work sitting on stumps. Birds were close and a lot of them were hanging in the air just before getting to the table. It was easier. Nevertheless beasts were equally fast and even if they were hanging in the air, it was only for fraction of second. In that time we had to shoot the place with the lens and force camera to catch focus on the bird, then press shutter and take few shots. I became convinced that taking hummingbirds pictures is a great challenge and requires a plenty of time. This last thing was what we were missing. Besides we were hungry and there was pretty cool restaurant nearby, so decided to quit shooting and went for some food. We had famous steak served on basalt rock (spanish: lomo de piedra). It tasted really wonderful and I don't think to forget this taste until my next visit to Ecuador. Unfortunately this was our last full day in this beautiful country and I must say I've fallen in love one more time...
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